The Serpent In The Lion's Den
by shannonthefox
Summary: Isabelle Weasley's life has been rather boring. Segregated from her family the only companionship she has ever known is that of her friend Luna. But this year Isabelle is going to Hogwarts where she'll meet the one and only Harry Potter and from then on her life is turned upside down. Full summary inside.


**Disclaimer – The world of Harry Potter is owned by JK Rowling, I claim no ownership for the characters, settings and cannon story plot used, only the original characters like Izzy are mine.**

Isabelle Weasley's life has been rather boring. Segregated from her family the only companionship she has ever known is that of her friend Luna. But this year Isabelle is going to Hogwarts where she'll meet the one and only Harry Potter and from then on her life is turned upside down. With secrets, lies and mysteries around every corner how will Isabelle cope, or be able to get her essay done for her very strict potions teacher and head of house.

**A/N – **

_Italics = Flashback_

_**Italics Bold = telepathic thoughts/speech**_

**Bold = Author Notes**

Isabelle was always different compared to her family. She was quiet where they were loud. Soft where they were tough and boisterous and calm where their temper was short and quickly sparked. She wasn't exciting like her older brothers Bill and Charlie. She wasn't as obedient and strict as her brother Percy nor was she as funny and humorously clever as Fred and George. She wasn't brutish and strong like Ron and she was nowhere near as confident as Ginny. She didn't fit in with her family, even her hair was a darker shade of red compared to the rest of the brood, and she had the most emerald green eyes compared to her family who had baby blue or deep brown eyes. Isabelle was an anomaly, one which people chose to ignore. Even her own family sometimes forgot her existence. She was invisible, a stranger to those she should be closest to.

In her whole entire life Isabelle had only had two friends, Salem her pure black kitten which she had saved from the horrible McCullough boys from across the marsh and Luna Lovegood her best friend. Luna was the only person who truly knew Isabelle, and not in the 'knew what her favourite colour was' kind of knew but the 'She knew what Isabelle would think and feel, and how she would react to situations and emotions' kind of knew.

Luna and Isabelle had been best friends since Luna absentmindedly wondered up to the burrow when she was six and Isabelle was seven. They had immediately became friends and since then seemed to spend every waking moment with each other. Isabelle would always remember the day she met Luna, for her it was crystal clear in her head like looking at a memory in a pensive.

_-Flash Back Start-_

_Ron had ticked her off so much. He'd been a little bully all day. First he stole over half her bacon at breakfast, then he'd hidden her favourite hair brush making it so that she couldn't tame her unruly red curls that no one else in their family seemed to have and finally he'd taken all of the art supplies leaving none for her to use. So she was ticked off, yes one hundred per cent ticked off. As Ron had decided to make it so that Izzy could have no fun practising her second favourite hobby of art, she had decided to go play in the garden. Izzy liked the garden it was her favourite place, mainly because Ron was scared of the Gnomes which lived at the bottom of it. Izzy didn't mind the Gnomes that lived in the garden, as long as she left them alone, they left her alone. She was playing in the flower patches when she saw her. At first she thought she was a fairy with her natural whitish blonde hair, almost silent walk and her ethereal appearance not to mention the fact that she seemed to appear at of nowhere. _

"_H-Hello?" Isabelle called out across the garden as she slowly sat up from where she was laying in the flowers. The girl turned to look at her and slowly started making her way across to where Izzy was sitting. She reached where Izzy was sitting and sat next to her in the flowers smiling away with a dreamy look on her face._

"_Hello!" she replied in a soft girly voice. The girl began picking some of the daisies that they were sitting in and began to make a bracelet out of them, humming a soft tune as she did._

"_My names Izzy, what's yours?" Izzy questioned as she watched the strange young girl weave the small daisies together with no problem at all. _

"_I'm Luna Lovegood! I live just over the way with my dad." She replied with a giggle. Luna finished her bracelet surprisingly quickly and went on to make a flower crown._

"_How'd you end up here then? In my garden?" Izzy questioned as she sat in awe at how fast Luna seemed to make the bracelet_

"_I followed the will o' the wisps. Despite what people say they are actually quite friendly and like to lead people to good fortune and happiness." Luna stated in a matter of fact way as she carefully arranged the flowers for her flower crown. Izzy regarded Luna with a confuse expression etched onto her face._

"_What's Will o' the wisp?" Izzy asked. The girl seemed odd to Izzy but also friendly and sweet and Izzy hoped they might become friends. If only so she had someone to play with._

"_Will O' The Wisps is small little bright creatures which live around the marshes and forests. Many people are lead astray by them mainly because they chase and scare them away, back into the marshes where they feel safe. What they don't know is that if you calmly walk after them and follow them then they'll try to lead you to good fortune and happiness like I said before." Luna finished as she threaded the last flower onto her crown and placed it upon her own head. Izzy regarded what Luna had said with a lot of thought and then a look of caution spread across her face and a spark of hope entered her eyes. _

"_Is meeting me good fortune then?" Izzy asked as she wringed her hands and chewed nervously on her lips. Luna smiled and gently encased Izzy's hands in her own._

"_I think meeting you was a great fortune, I have a feeling you and I will be the best of friends from now on. I bet the Nargles agree too!" Luna finished with a childish grin. Izzy set a look of confusion onto Luna._

"_Nargles?" She questioned, causing Luna to giggle and begin an explanation of one of her favourite creatures. Izzy listened to every word that Luna said, and laughed along with her when Luna mentioned something rather amusing or silly. Much too soon it was time for both girls to go for dinner. They parted with a promise to meet the very next day and so it went for many years after that. Every day they would meet up in the Weasley's back garden and play together, soon they became very best of friends and one was very rarely seen without the other._

_-Flash Back End-_

Isabelle dreaded the thought of attending Hogwarts after this summer was over and leaving her best friend here. She would miss Luna's light childish outlook on life and the complete relaxation that came from spending time with her best friend. She supposed it was only for a year though and then Luna would be joining her in Hogwarts. Oh how Isabelle prayed that Luna was sorted into the same house as her when the time came.

Luckily Isabelle was able to take Salem to Hogwarts with her; she didn't know how she would make it through the school year if she couldn't have at least one of her friends with her. She knew that Salem would miss Artemis, Luna's pure white kitten. Luna had adopted Artemis not even a week after Isabelle had saved Salem. Luna's father Xenophilius had seen how much Luna loved playing with the small ball of fluff and decided to let her get one of her own.

-Page Break-

Today was the day the before Isabelle was to leave for Hogwarts, so far she'd spent the whole day organising and packing all of her things and unlike her twin brother Ron she had saved any allowance she got that wasn't spent on Salem and was able to purchase all her belongings brand new instead of having to use the hand-me-downs from her older siblings. Ron and she would be the sixth and seventh children from Arthur and Molly Weasley to be attending Hogwarts, with their younger sister Ginny to be following the year after.

To say Isabelle was anxious about going to Hogwarts would be an understatement; she was practically shaking with nerves. The pressure to be sorted as a Gryffindor was extremely high with her family and she worried for the moment where she was sorted into a different house. Isabelle knew she wasn't a Gryffindor like the rest of her family. Those sorted into Gryffindor were normally boisterous and quickly angered when provoked, and always jumped into the deep end before thinking about a situation or problem. Those were things which Isabelle was not. She always thought ahead of things and based her actions on how and when they'd benefit her. She was smart, calculating and calm. She never got too over her head and remained steady in any circumstance. If she ever did get over-whelmed she was quick to cover it with a mask of cool confidence. Isabelle was almost certain that she'd either be sorted into Ravenclaw or Slytherin. Secretly she hoped she'd be sorted into Slytherin, mostly so she could have Professor Snape as her head of house.

Severus Snape was a name which Isabelle held in high esteem. He was the youngest and word had it one of the greatest potion masters in Britain. Isabelle loved potions, from the carefully selected ingredients and how they were prepared to how the potions themselves were actually made. It was the main lesson which Isabelle couldn't wait to attend, that and herbology where she could nurture the plants and ingredients which would eventually be used in said potions or at least she hoped they would be if she cared for them well enough.

Isabelle packed the last of her things into her trunk and shut it with a _THUD_, and dragged it to her door for her dad to carry down. Isabelle then went around the room she shared with Ginny making sure that she got all of Salem's many toys and care items and packed them in Salem's own small case which connected to his travel case. Salem was spoilt there was no doubt about that. She finally grabbed the last bits and shut the case placing it by her trunk for Salem to be loaded up in the morning before they left. With all of her things backed Izzy sat back onto her bed with a sigh and grabbed her book of the nightstand. Izzy had decided to read ahead for potions and started on the first year book that she'd got from Diagon Ally yesterday. It'd only been a day and she'd almost complete read 'magical drafts and potions'. That was another thing about Izzy that was different; she loved to read and could read exceptionally fast. When she'd first shown how fast she could read her mum didn't believe Izzy had truly read the book and told her to read it again.

She'd just got to the last section of the book when she heard a shout from downstairs.

"Isabelle Dinner!" her mum shouted up the many stairs of their topsy turvy house. Izzy was sure the only reason their house was still standing was because of the magic which was used on it. There is no way a house of this structure would manage to stay together otherwise.

"I'll be down in a minute Mum!" Izzy shouted down the stairs as loud as she could. Unlike her Mother, Izzy had a soft and quite voice which normally leads to the things she said being ignored completely by most of her family. The only ones in her family which did sometimes listen to her were Fred and George, but they were either at Hogwarts or pranking everyone else in the house. They tended not to prank Izzy much mainly because she always got revenge on them in the end.

Izzy stretched her back and marked her page with her sweet bookmark, which she'd made herself by drawing all her favourite sweets and cakes onto a piece of card and then politely asking her Father to add some finishing charms to it so it wouldn't get ruined. She placed her book under her pillow and started the decent from the top of the house to the kitchen at the bottom, she giggled quietly when she saw the mess that the kitchen had become already and dinner hadn't even started, it was always lively here at the burrow. There was never really a dull moment and Izzy almost always found herself amused by what was happening around her even if she wasn't really a part of it. She guessed she'd miss the burrow whilst she was at Hogwarts, not a lot mind you but a little. It was 'Home' after all wasn't it? Everyone was supposed to miss home when they left for an extended amount of time. Sometimes Izzy felt like the burrow wasn't actually home and that she may never truly find her home. Maybe Hogwarts was to be her home. Maybe this whole school thing would be ok. Maybe she'd find a home in the house she was sorted into. Maybe she'd find a family of a sort who understood her and wanted to hear what she had to say. Maybe she'd find a place where she'd belong and was accepted. Maybe…

**A/N – So had this story idea running round my head for a while now and decided to get it written, well typed out before it popped out of existence. I pretty much know the path I want to take for the majority of the story and have it all mapped out in my head. Thanks for reading if you got the time to drop a quick review that'd be great. Criticism is greatly appreciated. **:-)

**Shannonthefox**


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